GOA, INDIA - WTC Goa in association with The International Centre of Goa, Western India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and GCCI organized a panel discussion on Impact of Central Budget 2016 on Direct & Indirect Taxes. The program was attended by more than 100 including the commerce & economics students of Goa.

Mr Manguirish Pai Raiker, Chairman, National Council of SMEs/ASSOCHAM, Advisor, WTC Goa was invited as the chairperson. CA. Sandeep Bhandare, Vice President, GCCI and CA. Parimal Kulkarni, Past Sec. WIRC of the ICAI were speakers for the evening. Mr Kedar Kenkre, WIRC and Mr Arjun Halarnkar, Program Manager, ICG were also present.

Mr Mangurish P Raiker initiated the discussion on the note that the Budget is supposed to be collective report representing all the sectors of the industry like education, agriculture, manufacturing, services etc. “The core focus of every individual is on personal benefits from the budget, which actually should have been the overall benefit to the country. Hence there is a need to change the perception before embarking on the whole process of budget assessment”, he opined. Raiker stated that the Budget 2016 is fiscally prudent, socially redistributive and incorporates every segment right from the soil to the ultimate level of employment generation in the nation. One basic necessity, that is common between every human being irrespective of the caste, social status, place of origin etc. is 'striving to feed oneself or at the most his/her own family'. Therefore, this fact makes agriculture and the allied sectors our prime concern and explains, why the issues of our nation’s farmers needs to be dealt with utter importance. Thinking on these lines our Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Arun JaitleyJi has prepared the budget revolving around the farmers and making provisions for the long deserving benefits to them, he acclaimed. Apart from this the budget aims at fiscal deficit of 3.5% of GDP, focuses on lowering of rates, rural consumption, hails the public sector to revive investments and boost employment generation with the initiatives like Make in India etc.

CA. Sandeep Bhandare provided the in-depth budget analysis covering the various pros and cons related to every point. The budget aims to maintain the FRBM target while he highlighted that there are certain undetermined factors like the announcement of OROP in the defense industry, Basic pay of 7th pay commission, spending on the rail or road infrastructure projects and bulk recapitalization, which could be seen as an encumbrance in the process. However the provisions for the housing sector and loan benefits, will provide a tremendous boost to the housing industry, he mentioned.

CA. Parimal Kulkarni explained the various aspects of Indirect Taxation in the form of GST. Our tax structure is designed exclusively for various socio-economic strata of our country like the businessman, government employee, politician and working class common man, instead we must develop a holistic approach of viewing the tax burden distributed equally on every sector, urged Kulkarni. of GST is the need of the hour and service taxes will help curb the deficits. Ms Ambika Dhakhenkar, Asst Mgr, WTC Goa presented the Vote of Thanks.

PHOTO (L-R): Mr Manguirish Pai Raiker, Advisor, WTC Goa, CA. Sandeep Bhandare, Vice President, GCCI and CA. Parimal Kulkarni, Past Sec. WIRC of the ICAI.

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